Response rate assessed by Response Evaluation Criteria for Solid Tumors (RECIST) [ Time Frame: Up to 5 years ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]

An O'Brien-Fleming monitoring boundary (truncated at 3 standard deviations) and a spending function approach will be employed for interim monitoring of efficacy. A futility analysis will also be performed, testing a 'null hypothesis' that the relative risk of failure with this therapy is 0.60 (compared to the ID/IE therapy experience), with consideration of suspension of accrual should this hypothesis be rejected at any of the scheduled interim looks at a significance level of 0.005.

Event-free survival [ Time Frame: Up to 5 years ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]

This randomized pilot clinical trial is studying the side effects and how well giving temozolomide and cixutumumab together with combination chemotherapy works in treating patients with metastatic rhabdomyosarcoma. Drugs used in chemotherapy, such as temozolomide, work in different ways to stop the growth of tumor cells, either by killing the cells or by stopping them from dividing. Monoclonal antibodies, such as cixutumumab, can block tumor growth in different ways. Some block the ability of tumor cells to grow and spread. Others find tumor cells and help kill them or carry tumor-killing substances to them. Giving temozolomide and cixutumumab together with combination chemotherapy may kill more tumor cells.

Detailed Description

PRIMARY OBJECTIVES:

I. To determine the feasibility of administering IMC-A12 (cixutumumab) in combination with a multi-agent intensive chemotherapy regimen for the treatment of high-risk rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS).

II. To determine the feasibility of adding temozolomide to vincristine (vincristine sulfate)/irinotecan (irinotecan hydrochloride) cycles in patients with high-risk RMS.

III. To assess immediate and short-term side effects of delivery of concurrent temozolomide-vincristine-irinotecan with irradiation in patients with high-risk RMS.

SECONDARY OBJECTIVES:

I. To gain a preliminary estimate of the response rate to IMC-A12 or temozolomide plus vincristine/irinotecan in previously untreated high-risk RMS.

GROUP 3: Patients receive vincristine sulfate, irinotecan hydrochloride, ifosfamide, etoposide, doxorubicin hydrochloride, cyclophosphamide, dactinomycin, and cixutumumab and undergo radiation therapy* as in group 1. Patients also receive temozolomide as in group 2. (Discontinued as of January 2013)

NOTE: *Patients with parameningeal tumors and evidence of intracranial extension or those requiring emergency radiotherapy may receive radiation therapy starting in week 1; cixutumumab should be withheld during radiation therapy.

After completion of study therapy, patients are followed up at 3 weeks and then periodically for up to 5 years.

Patients must be eligible for, and enrolled on D9902 prior to enrollment on ARST08P1

Patients with newly diagnosed, biopsy-proven metastatic rhabdomyosarcoma or ectomesenchymoma (stage IV, clinical group IV) are eligible for this study; patients with stage IV, clinical group IV RMS with parameningeal and paraspinal primary tumors, including those with intracranial extension (ICE) are eligible for ARST08P1; ICE is defined by contrast magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showing that the primary tumor touches, displaces, invades, distorts, or otherwise causes signal abnormality of the dura in brain or spinal cord in contiguity to the primary site; ICE is also presumed to exist if the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) cytopathology is positive for tumor at diagnosis

Patients must have a performance status corresponding to Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) scores of 0, 1, or 2; use Karnofsky for patients > 16 years of age and Lansky for patients =< 16 years of age

No prior chemotherapy or radiotherapy except for use of corticosteroids or emergent radiation therapy; patients requiring emergency radiation are eligible

Patients with urinary tract obstruction by tumor must meet the renal function criteria listed above AND must have unimpeded urinary flow established via decompression of the obstructed portion of the urinary tract

Total bilirubin =< 1.5 x upper limit of normal (ULN) for age, unless there is evidence of biliary obstruction by the tumor